After I finished Clue # 2, I started Clue # 3 — Half-Chevrons and Bonus HST units. I’m opting to draw lines on the back of the neutral squares. Not my first choice, but the units are turning out better than when I don’t. I’ll work on them again tonight.

I’m loving the pink, purple, and lime. There is one more color to be added — orange. I think it’s in clue # 4.

Oh – and for those wondering, this is the 2018 Quiltville Mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. She offers a free mystery quilt pattern that runs from Friday after Thanksgiving to early January. The pattern is no longer available free, but it is available to purchase as a download HERE.

It rained most of the day Saturday and it was raining again this afternoon. Storming is probably a better description. There was enough lighting and thunder that I was surprised Gracie did not hide under the bed. Of course it’s not as good a hiding place since I took off the dust ruffle. Anyway, she kept me company while I worked on Clue #2 of Good Fortune.

I’ve got about 80% of them done. I also have Clue # 3 cut out. So, the quilt top is coming along.

Last night I put in the final stitches on my Carolina Chain quilt top. Last summer I took this as a class with Bonnie Hunter at the Mississippi Quilt Association’s June Gathering. Now to decide on a backing and to put it in the queue to get it quilted.

Since I finished Clue 1 of Good Fortune, I started using Clue #2 as my leader/ender. I still have tons of HST to cut. I think I have enough purple cut for the clue, but I suspect I’ll need to cut more neutrals.

I’ve been working on my Carolina Chain for the past little bit and have been stitching these 4-patches for Good Fortune as my leader/enders. I finished trimming the last 4-patch moments before midnight.

Saturday was a Sew Day for my quilting guild between May being super busy for everyone and the rain, there weren’t many people sewing, but I did have several quilters stop by and drop off their quilts for the Kansas City Quilt Festival. My project was sewing the sleeve on my entry.

Wednesday evening was the Candlelight Quilters meeting. During Show and Tell, this quilt was shown. The story is the quilt was found in a barn in really bad condition. The owner didn’t want to throw it away, so gave it to her friend — who also didn’t want to throw it away. It finally ended up in a 3rd quilters possession she took all the applique blocks apart and reassembled them. The end result was the beautiful quilt. But no one has ever seen this block before. Speculation was that maybe it was from the Kansas City Star, but I don’t see it in my resources. Has anyone seen a pattern for this block?

I received an email from JoAnn Fabrics. Yes, I saw it said 70% off, but I deleted the email off my computer – even restarted the email program so it wasn’t in my trash folder. I deleted the email off my phone. Then my sister-in-law called me. She wanted to know if she should buy some batting with her coupon. Since she’s going to be shipping her quilt tops to my sister, I said no. But what about baby quilts? That’s when I pulled the email out of the trash on my phone to read it. Now if I only had been able to go to the movie. When I got into work I was reminded that I had to work last night, so I had about 2 hours to kill between the end of my normal work day and when I needed to work on the software.

The scroll fabrics will be used for the backings of these two quilt tops.

There may be a border in the future of the first quilt — but I have to dig around to see if I can find the fabric I was going to use.

The red and blue fabrics will be used in Dawns Early Light, Narragansett Blues, Garden Party, and who knows what else The black fabric on the left I bought simply because I liked it. I’m not 100% certain why I bought the Wrap-n-Zap since I have an unopened package — I guess because the price was right.

Meanwhile, while I was waiting for my turn at work, I’ve sewn a few rows on Carolina Chain. That last row is just stuck on the wall.

I’m trying to find my new normal. It’s not been easy. I was in the middle of rearranging my sewing/office area when my life was turned upside down. I finally got the room to the point I can sew/quilt.

Last June I attended the Mississippi Quilt Association June Gathering in Jackson, Mississippi where I took Bonnie Hunter’s Carolina Chain Class. I have finished the blocks and now I’m assembling the quilt.

I have opted to use a purple with multicolored dots for the setting triangles. Who knows, I might even have this done before this year’s June gathering — not that I’m able to go this year.

Good Fortune is slowly being to take shape. I’m about halfway through Clue # 1. I’m using fuchsia instead of red in my quilt.

As part of the clean up, I started cutting the stacks of fabric that needed to be put away.

The top left is Dawn’s Early Light from Sting Frenzy. I’ll get to it eventually. The next two hangers are fabrics for Good Fortune. I’m using purple instead of blue and my green and oranges are on the neon side of things. The bottom hanger is Garden Party. I’m introducing my husband’s sisters to quilting Bonnie style as we are taking her Garden Party class this August. We’ve each picked a different color for the chains. I’m doing green chains. I’ve also kitted up 3 posey blocks. The red and blue? Would you believe another Bonnie Hunter quilt? This one is Narragansett Blues that I’m going to do with red and white 4-patches instead of a variety colors. I don’t need these fabrics until November when my sister, sister-in-law and I are attending yet another Bonnie Hunter class.

I have plans to see an early showing of The Sun is Also a Star, so there won’t be any sewing today.

I don’t think I’ve sewn a thing since I’ve gotten back from the retreat earlier this month. But I’ve been playing in my fabric. My general rule of thumb is I don’t start the new Bonnie Hunter/Quiltville mystery quilt if last year’s is still in progress. Well, I got the borders on the one from 3 years ago, completed the one from 2 years ago (OK, it still needs a label), and finished the top from last year’s mystery. There should be nothing stopping me from doing this year’s mystery. But before the retreat I just didn’t think I wanted to start another big quilt since I have several big quilts that I want to finish over the next few months. But when I got home, there I was pulling fabric from my stash.

Pulling from my stash I ended up with turquoise for the blue, fuchsia for the red and at the moment I’m looking at purple for the green. But I have subsequently found my stash of lime green fabrics, so I might go with them if there is enough of them. Of course I could always go to the store, but I pretty much used up my fabric money on the road trip to Jackson back in June.

For the past few weeks I’ve been folding and sorting all of the fabric which has collected around here. Anything bigger than 10″ x 12″ has been folded and put away — mostly sorted by color, but that’s still a work in progress. Smaller stuff has been tossed into bags to be cut up into my version of Bonnie’s Scrap Users System. I’m finally getting around to dealing with the scraps I’ve been given over the past few years, my own scraps and those scraps that I bought. What was I thinking!

These bags are much fuller now. I think I’m down to maybe 3 boxes to be sorted, so I need to start cutting. But my pre-cut boxes are stuffed. So, I’ve stopped and had to sort through those boxes.

This is the “shirt box” size. It was stuffed with 2-1/2″ strips. I pulled them all out, pressed them, rolled them up by color then bagged them. There’s plenty of room in the box now. My 2″ strip box, which is “shoe box” size has even more room. But then again I did pull out anything shorter than 12″ and tossed it into the sacks to be cut up into bricks and blocks. My brick and block boxes are also being sorted and straightened, although they won’t be put into bags.

I will continue working through this process and hopefully do a bit of piecing over the next week. After Thanksgiving you’ll find me at my sewing machine. I have a Christmas wall hanging I need to finish, and who knows what else I’ll be working on. I need to find a couple of simple projects to take with me when I visit my sister-in-law. She’s learning to quilt. At this point I have no idea what I’m going to take. I suppose I need to give that a bit of thought as well.

This past weekend I attended my guilds Fall retreat. It was held at the Unity Village Hotel and Conference Center here in the metro area. It was a beautiful facility and the food was fantastic. I’ve only been a member of the guild since June, so it was an opportunity to get to know the other members.

Unlike other retreats I’ve gone to, I didn’t get my packing done until the morning I was to leave — was because it was only 15 minutes way? The good news is that I had everything I need, although in retrospect I wish I had taken my Sidewinder as I had to wind my bobbins twice to get the tension right. I was sewing on my Genie.

When I travel with sewing gear, my personal rule of thumb is that it must all fit in these three bags.

The black bag holds my sewing machine extension, seat cushion, a 12 x 18 mat, a 12 x 12 rotating mat, and my larger rulers. The sewing machine bag has plenty of space since I purchased it to fit my big machine and now take my Genie. The square “serger” bag is my project bag. I’m so glad I was talked into buying it. It holds a ton of stuff. This weekend I had the following projects in it.

On Ringo Lake

Allietare

Candy Sunflower Seeds

Now & Later

Cascade

Postage Stamp Leader/Ender

Christmas Wall Hanging

Kitted pillowcases and zipper bags

In addition to the above, I had my Ott Light, my stuffed Bionic Gear bag, travel iron and a few other supplies/notions in the serger bag and there was room for more. But I refrained as the retreat was only from 10 AM Friday to 3 PM Sunday.

So what did I accomplish?

I finished assembling my On Ringo Lake top. It looks wonky, but that’s the way it’s hanging on the wall and there is an air vent behind it.

Next, I got the borders on Allietare.

Then I pulled out Candy Sunflower Seeds. The center was done. I just needed to add the borders. Most of the border was pieced. But I struggled turning the corner with my 4-patches, so I came up with another plan, which took all day and a 2 hour nap to implement. At this point it measures 51 x 70, so I’m calling it DONE. It also means I have some of that great brown print to use in another quilt.

I then pulled out something almost mindless. My version of Now & Later. The squares were already sewn to the colored rectangles, so it just needed assembling. I got this far just as I needed to stop and pack up. This may actually be done, as it measures 48 x 60 and the border print that inspired the colors is way too busy for it.

Of course the whole time I was sewing I was working on my postage stamp quilt. I sewed my 2-patches into 4-patches, then my 4-patches into 8-patches, then started making 16 patches. I think there are enough pieces there for 8 more blocks which will bring my total blocks to 32. I’m aiming for at least 72 blocks (64 x 72), so I’m not quite halfway there.